Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/51218

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DC Field

Value

Language

dc.contributor.author

Cusack, Thomas R.

en_US

dc.contributor.author

Beramendi, Pablo

en_US

dc.date.accessioned

2011-11-09T17:08:02Z

-

dc.date.available

2011-11-09T17:08:02Z

-

dc.date.issued

2003

en_US

dc.identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10419/51218

-

dc.description.abstract

This paper examines the development of tax regimes across the OECD countries in the latter part of the 20th century. It pays particular attention to taxes on labor income. A number of results emerge from this examination. First, not only do taxes on labor income represent a major drain on private households; they have become the mainstay of many of these countries’ public sector finances. Second, taxes on labor income, and not taxes on capital, appear to be the preferred instrument of finance for those economic and political interests that advocate and support a strong (and thereby expensive) welfare state. There is little “free lunch” to be had in these welfare states; if anything, “socialism in one class” seems to be the rule. Third, while the effort at financing the welfare state this way comes at cost in terms of loss in employment, the magnitude of such loss is inversely related to the degree of wage coordination in the labor market.

en_US

dc.language.iso

eng

en_US

dc.publisher

|aWissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB) |cBerlin

en_US

dc.relation.ispartofseries

|aWZB Discussion Paper |xSP II 2003-17

en_US

dc.subject.jel

H24

en_US

dc.subject.jel

J32

en_US

dc.subject.jel

J50

en_US

dc.subject.jel

J64

en_US

dc.subject.ddc

330

en_US

dc.subject.keyword

Taxation

en_US

dc.subject.keyword

Partisan Politics

en_US

dc.subject.keyword

Institutions

en_US

dc.subject.keyword

Varieties of Capitalism

en_US

dc.title

Taxing work: Some political and economic aspects of labor income taxation